It has emerged during the start of the Australian Grand Prix race weekend that the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team and Red Bull Racing, were advised by the FIA to tweak the designs of their suspension systems prior to the first round of the season.

This is following a clarification request from Scuderia Ferrari over winter, which was sent to the FIA regarding the legality of certain ‘pre-loaded’ designs that they believed aided a cars aerodynamic performance.

Though the Italian team did not mention any specific teams they felt were benefiting from this concept in their letter, it is widely believed their request was aimed at Mercedes and Red Bull, who had both used such systems during the 2016 season.

The enquiry led to the FIA clarifying the rules, stipulating that suspension systems should not be designed to deliberately help aerodynamic performance, before going on to inspect the designs of all F1 teams during the pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Following these investigations, the sport’s governing body concluded that the designs of Mercedes and Red Bull did not fully comply with the legislation and therefore must be changed.